Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series heads next for Patterson/Bradway Memorial in Chico on June 10 & Southern Oregon Speedway on June 11

By Gary Thomas

Chico, CA – June 1, 2011…With no racing on tap this weekend the Golden State King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series will get ready for a busy two-night’s of racing next week on Friday June 10 in Chico and Saturday June 11 in Medford, Oregon.

The opener for the big weekend on June 10 at Silver Dollar Speedway will be billed as the “Tribute to Gary Patterson/ Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial” and will have a number of special prizes up for grabs to drivers, which are carried over from the Bradway rainout on May 7.

This will be the fourth year that the Tribute to Gary Patterson is held at Silver Dollar Speedway and will also mark the eighth race of the season for KWS.

Known as the "Dancing Phantom," the "Preacher," the "Hostile Hippie" or just simply "GP," Patterson was one of the most colorful characters of his time. He claimed a number of major victories in his career including the Gold Cup Race of Champions, the Super Dirt Cup in Washington and the Turkey Night Grand Prix at Ascot Park among others.

Patterson unfortunately lost life his life in a sprint car crash at the Calistoga Speedway in 1983 and an event in his memory had been held at the half-mile track until 2007, when the Tribute to GP was moved to Silver Dollar Speedway the following year.

The Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial pays tribute to fallen race car driver Dave Bradway Jr., who lost his life in a sprint car crash at Skagit Speedway's Dirt Cup in 1987. It is the biggest event of the season for the Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series and packs extra money and awards all night.

Dave and Diane Durica have collected lap money and each lap of the A-main and Last Chance Qualifier will pay $100 to be distributed among the top three each lap. The leader of the lap gets $50, second $30 and third $20. Butler Built Performance has also donated $500 to the winners’ share of the Tribute to Gary Patterson/ Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial, making the 40-lap A-main on Friday $3500-to-win plus the lap money.

The hard charger in the A-main will receive $550 courtesy of donations from Cherry St. Mini Storage, American Tool & Mfg, Bobby McMahan Racing, the Mussell Brothers of Santa Maria and Steward Ranches Eat Beef! The hard charger, as always with KWS, will also receive a $200 certificate to PitStopUSA.com

Fast-time at the event on June 10 will also pay $550, as the decision was made to award Kyle Larson with half of the fast-time money during the rainout last month. Donations for the fast-time money were from Brent Kaeding, Rich Stadelhofer, Carwash Mike, Paul Brandon, GT Promotions & Shaver Racing Engines. Like at all KWS events the fast time driver will also receive a custom plaque from Grant’s Fine Art.

Sponsoring the heat races at the Tribute to GP/ Bradway Memorial will be the fan group known as Hoserville. Each heat race winner will stop on the front stretch to be interviewed and will receive a right rear tire, five sleeves of tear offs and a trophy to hand out to a kid in the stands. Each heat race winner will also receive a coupon towards powder coating one sprint car chassis courtesy of Willie Croft and Amerikote.

The Silver Dollar Speedway is located on the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico, CA. Adult tickets will cost $20, juniors 12-15 will be $14, children 6-11 are $12 and kids five and under will be free. More information on the Tribute to Gary Patterson/ Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial can be found by logging onto http://www.silverdollarspeedway.com

On Saturday June 11 the tour heads outside of California for the first time this season with an event at the Southern Oregon Speedway in Medford, OR. Each season the Golden State 410’s make a traditional stop at the track on way to the non-point, $40,000-to-win Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Washington.

Last season saw a strong car count and great racing in the main event at the one-third mile oval, which was highlighted by a tremendous late-race duel with Chico’s Jonathan Allard and Elk Grove’s Kyle Larson. In the end it was the youngster picking up the win with Allard in second and Campbell’s Brent Kaeding in third.

The Southern Oregon Speedway is located at the Jackson County Sports Park just outside of White City, OR and is about 15 minutes from downtown Medford. General admission tickets will be $20 for adults with seniors, juniors & veterans $15 and children $5.

For results, point standings and much more on the Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series visit http://www.kwssprints.com

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San Jose's Tim Kaeding & Roth Motorsports will bring a 35-point lead in the KWS standings to the "Tribute to GP/ Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial" at the Silver Dollar Speedway on Friday June 10. Photo by Steve Lafond of Tear Off Heaven Photos.

The Thomas Family has put in $300 to fast-time for the Tribute to Gary Patterson/ Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial so fast-time for this coming Friday June 10 will be $850. If anyone else would like to contribute please let us know.